Veni, vidi, video : the Hollywood empire and the VCR / Frederick Wasser.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wasser, Frederick.

Series:

Texas film and media studies series.

Texas film and media studies series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Video recordings industry.

Video recordings.

Physical Description:

x, 245 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

A funny thing happened on the way to the movies. Instead of heading downtown to a first-run movie palace, or even to a suburban multiplex with the latest high-tech projection capabilities, many people's first stop is now the neighborhood video store. Indeed, video rentals and sales today generate more income than either theatrical releases or television reruns of movies. This pathfinding book chronicles the rise of home video as a mass medium and the sweeping changes it has caused throughout the film industry since the mid-1970s. Frederick Wasser discusses Hollywood's initial hostility to home video, which studio heads feared would lead to piracy and declining revenues, and shows how, paradoxically, video revitalized the film industry with huge infusions of cash that financed blockbuster movies and massive marketing campaigns to promote them. He also tracks the fallout from the video revolution in everything from changes in film production values to accommodate the small screen to the rise of media conglomerates and the loss of the diversity once provided by smaller studios and independent distributors.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Acknowledgments ix

Signs of the Time

The American Film Industry before Video 5

The American Film Industry and Video lo

The Political Economy of Distribution 14

Video and the Audience 17

Structure of the Study 18

23 Film Distribution and Home Viewing before the VCR

A Brief Review of the Early Days of the Movie Industry 24

From Universal Audiences to Feature-Length Films 26

Movies at Home 28

Tiered Releasing 29

Broadcasting: The Other Entertainment Medium 31

Postwar Film Exhibition 36

Distributing Films to Smaller Audiences 39

Television Advertising and Jaws: Marketing the Shark Wide

and Deep 44

48 The Development of Video Recording

Broadcast Networks and Recording Technology 51

Television and Recording 55

Home Video 1: Playback-only Systems 60

Home Video 2: Japanese Recorder System Development 70

76 Home Video:The Early Years

Choice, "Harried" Leisure, and New Technologies 77

The Emergence of Cable 81

The Universal Lawsuit 82

VCR and Subversion 91

X-rated Cassettes 92

The Majors Start Video Distribution 95

Videotape Pricing 95

Renting 98

104 The Years of Independence: 1981-1986

Independence on the Cusp of Video 105

New Companies Get into Video Business 106

Hollywood Tries to Control Rentals no

Video, Theater, and Cable 116

Pre-Selling/Pre-Buying 121

Video and New Genres 125

Vestron's Video Publishing 127

Conclusion 129

131 Video Becomes Big Business

The Development of Two-Tiered Pricing 132

The New Movie Theater 135

Microeconomics i: Overview 138

Microeconomics 2: Rental 141

Video and Other Commodities 145

Retailing Consolidation 146

Breadth versus Depth 149

Video Advertising 151

Video and Revenue Streams 152

Production Increase 154

More Money, Same Product 154

158 Consolidation and Shakeouts

High Concept 161

Disney Comes Back On-line 162

The Majors Hold the Line on Production Expansion 165

Vestron Responds 171

The Fate of Pre-Selling and the Mini-Majors 176

LIVE, Miramax, and New Line 180

Conclusion 183

185 The Lessons of the Video Revolution

Media Industries after the VCR 185

Home Video and Changes in the Form of Film 194

Images of Audience Time 200

A Philosophic View of Film and Audience 202

Whither the Mass Audience? 204

Notes 207

Bibliography 227

Index 237.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-292-79896-2

OCLC:

560507540